This is creative writing exercise. Most of the work posted is unfinished, so comments and critiques are appreciated. My email is below in case you would rather send me your thoughts privately. Thanks for visiting, and I hope you enjoy!

Monday, September 29, 2014

It is essential that your tailgating supplies are easily accessible if you are going to successfully survive a Zombie Apocalypse. Jenn knew this in her bones. And here it was...tailgating time. She was gathering her supplies and yelled over her shoulder.

"Mama! Have you heard from Anna and them yet?"

"No! I can't reach her on the phone and she would have been here by now if she were okay."

Jenn knew that Anna would stay too long at work trying to help people. Her big sister was trying to save the world, and she knew that she needed to save her sister. She had already attached the reinforced, homemade camper to the back of her four by four and loaded it up. She gathered the extra weapons and headed over the the agency to get her sister.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Final Update: The contest is now closed. Congratulations to Bijan and Adrian for winning a Season Four Pass each. Thank you everyone who participated. :)

UPDATE:David Cummings of the very awesome No Sleep Podcast has generously donated a SECOND Season Four Pass!!!!! So I have extended the giveaway by a week. Click on "A Rafflecopter giveaway" below and enter the contest, and while you're online, check out the Podcast, maybe even give it a high rating on your podcast server. Halloween in coming and this podcast will jump start the holiday for you. Thank you so much to the most excellent David Cummings for his generosity and wonderful work.

Hey y'all!

This summer, I had a horrible case of ringworm (that I think will become a scary story one day). And I didn't feel like writing. Although I did teach myself to knit, weave, loom, and crochet and I worked on some embroidery. Since I was always online watching tutorials anyway, I decided to swing by reddit to see what was new on No Sleep. The first thing I noticed was that I had a message. When I checked it, I has a month old request from the No Sleep Podcast requesting PERMISSION TO RECORD PEGGY FOR A SHOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (you may so totally shout with glee here.) The whole reason that I finally wrote out Peggy and posted it to No Sleep was because I really wanted one of my stories on that podcast. I immediately wrote back and gave permission. The reply I received was that they thought the story had been abandoned and went ahead and recorded and posted it already. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My story was published on the third episode of Season Four on June 29. Since they didn't know who I was, they gave me the pseudonym Lisa Garfield, which is kind of stuck on the audio. My story is the fourth one which means that it is not one of the stories that you can listen to for free. It is $1.49 per episode or $19.99 for the season pass. Since I love this podcast, and I am over the fucking moon about my story getting chosen I want to give away a Season Pass, so I have decided to host a giveaway using Rafflecopter. Sign up below and I will let Rafflecopter to chose a winner in a week. Once the winner is chosen, I will get in touch with that person and get the information necessary for their subscription.

I'm not sure if this is necessary, but this is open to anyone who is 16 or older and lives in a place where they can receive a subscription. I have chosen to use Rafflecopter because most of my readers are my family and friends, who are allowed to participate. I am not receiving any compensation for running this give away, I just want to share the scary joy!Please take time to check out the No Sleep Podcast and the No Sleep forum. This recent story is particularly terrifying! With reddit, you really want to read the comments.

Friday, September 19, 2014

I apologize, but there has been a delay in my exciting announcement. I hope to post it Monday. Thank you for your patience and I promise I won't hint at future posts again. (I really should know better.)

Yay! A poem for the ever awesome dVerse Poets Pub . Gabriella challenges us to use travel to inspire our poetry. Since all I have really wanted to write over the past couple of days could best be categorized as porn, I took a little creative license with the prompt. I also tried to tone down the smut, and decided that Lunes might help with that. For this poem I have alternated Collum and Kelly Lunes to make the stanzas. I love Lunes. Why not hop on over to dVerse and check out the other travel poetry?

Monday, September 15, 2014

Once again, I have had a burst of writing followed by a long silence. And I realized some things about how I blog.

I like NaPoWriMo and it revs me up for writing. It feels like I could write and write and write everyday forever. And then something, usually depression, happens and I stop. I also stop reading and visiting other blogs, waiting for it to pass. [Although this time, it was a combination of feeling weird after participating in the blog hop (I'm not sure why) and a remarkably nasty, hardy, contagious, and itchy case of ringworm. That thing lasted for over two and a half months. >:-( ]

It's the not visiting my favorite blogs (and to a lesser extent replying to comments to my posts) that seems to get me in the most trouble. I begin to feel like I can't post until I have caught up in visits. And, at that point, blog reading becomes homework, and if I wanted to do homework, I would still be working on my PhD. I turn something I like into a duty, and that's not what I want. If I read and comment on 20 posts from the same blogger like a stalker binge-reading, I would rather it be because I am enjoying the writing and not because I feel obligated.

I may be the only person who blogs who feels compelled to reciprocate out of duty, but I kind of doubt it. I have read the other occasional, "I-have-to-catch-up-on-reading-blogs" posts. So I have decided to liberate myself and the five of you (A,B,B,B,&B) who read and comment on the lasagna with regularity. Reciprocity is not a requirement here. That felt good. Let me write that again.

Reciprocity is not a requirement here.

Even if I am visiting you via a community that encourages reciprocity. If I have been by and commented, please don't feel obligated to return the visit. That feeling of obligation reduces my pleasure in reading blogs and stokes my anxiety to the point where I can't write. Fuck that shit, this is supposed to be fun y'all.

So, we are starting over with a clean slate. I am going to start profiling writing I like on Mondays via my Twitter and Facebook accounts again. #FridayFartPoems will also return to Twitter and Facebook. I'm ready to get back to writing. (And you may notice more bodies-are-gross poetry popping up.)

Finally, something super exciting happened this summer that I didn't find out about until a month later. I don't want to announce it at the moment, because I want this up for a couple of days to get some views.